Book of Mormon Lands Conference on DNA and the Book of Mormon

Brant Gardner, a software consultant with training in Mesoamericanstudies and anthropology, told about 200 people gathered at the RedLion Hotel that a lack of DNA evidence showing American Indians are ofHebrew descent is "the most important non-issue we have in modernMormonism."

Claims in recent years by LDS anthropologist Thomas Murphy and formerLDS molecular biologist Simon Southerton regarding the lack of geneticconnection to Hebrew blood have caused spirited debate in somequarters about the origin of the Book of Mormon...

Southerton, a former bishop, was excommunicated from the church afterhis writings appeared. Murphy was threatened with church disciplineover his writings....

He said neither Murphy nor Southerton understood that LDS scientistshave known "for 50 years" about DNA evidence linking American Indiansto Asian ancestry rather than Hebrew blood. "For some reason, thesetwo men think this shocked us. It's been something we've been dealingwith for a very, very long time."

Publicity surrounding the writings of the two scientists has createddoubt for some Latter-day Saints, Gardner said. "Some people I'vetalked to are ready to leave the church over this."

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Because most genetic mapping is done through mitochondrial DNA, whichtracks only the female line, Gardner said the category of peopleexcluded from being linked to a living person by genetic testing goingback several generations is huge. "Most tests trace only a few of aperson's ancestors and a small portion of their DNA."

He also referred to what is known to researchers as a "geneticbottleneck," where "only a few people survive" some major cataclysmicevent "and we end up with only the DNA of the survivors and not therest of the population. It's entirely possible other people were herethat had different DNA, and we can't find it because they never madeit through the 'bottleneck event."'

DNA tests also may report false positives or false negatives, hesaid, and there are many historical scenarios where physical evidenceof things that are known to have occurred doesn't match whatresearchers expected to find using DNA evidence.

Latter-day Saint scientists never have disputed the movement of largegroups of people from Asia to the Americas, he said, though many LDSmembers have grown up believing that the only people who ever migratedto the Americas descended from Lehi's family in the Book of Mormon.

"We're often trying to compare our traditions versus science, butwhat does the Book of Mormon actually say? ... No matter how manyopinions someone might have about the Book of Mormon, if the opinionis wrong, it's the opinion that's wrong and not the book," Gardnersaid.

"What we know today about the Book of Mormon is more right than whatwe knew 10 years ago, and what we knew 10 years ago had somemisconceptions. Our opinions will continue to change in the future,but that doesn't change the truthfulness of the book."